Finance News Update, what you need to know

The Australian dollar is firmer, having regained some ground after falling on weak capital expenditure data.

At 0630 AEDT on Friday, the local unit was trading at 89.61 US cents, up from 89.42 cents on Thursday.

And the Australian share market looks set to open higher after Wall Street rallied as investors responded to encouraging results from several retailers and analysed comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

At 0645 AEDT on Friday, the March share price index futures contract was up 18 points at 5,5414.

ELSEWHERE:

KIEV - Ukraine's currency has plunged seven per cent to a record low on deepening uncertainty fuelled by Russian military exercises and pro-Kremlin gunmen grabbing government buildings in the separatist-minded Crimean peninsula.

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WASHINGTON - New claims for US unemployment insurance benefits rose more than expected last week but remained within the trend this year, Labor Department data shows.

WASHINGTON - American businesses ordered fewer long-lasting manufactured goods in January, cutting their demand for aircraft, autos and machinery. But a key category that reflects business investment rose a solid 1.7 per cent. Demand for electronic products and fabricated metals such as steel rose.

NICOSIA - The Cypriot parliament has failed to adopt a controversial bill to sell off state utilities mandated by a bailout from international lenders, potentially endangering the next tranche of a 10-billion-euro loan.

MADRID - Spain's government is to begin the privatisation of nationalised lender Bankia by selling off 7.5 per cent through its banking assistance fund FROB, according to a filing with the stock market regulator CNMV on Thursday.

BRASLIA - Brazil's economic output grew 2.3 per cent in 2013 for a third straight year of modest expansion by Latin America's biggest economy, the government says.

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen says the intense winter storms of the past two months have been one cause for the weakness in recent US economic data.

WARSAW - China has banned pork imports from Poland, a leading EU exporter of the meat, after Warsaw confirmed its first two cases of African swine fever (ASF) among wild boars.

LONDON - Royal Bank of Scotland's losses soared to almost 9.0 billion last year, the state-rescued lender announced on Thursday, while its decision to pay millions in bonuses triggered a political backlash.

TOKYO - Anxious Bitcoin investors in Tokyo have called for legal action against the chief executive of an exchange where hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of the virtual currency appear to have vanished.

LONDON - British American Tobacco, the world's second-biggest maker of cigarettes, has announced a slight increase in annual net profit while warning of headwinds in southern Europe.

BILLUND, Denmark - Toy maker Lego has posted rising annual profits and revenue and says it will set up global management hubs to attract more foreign talent to the group's management.

ROME - Italian family-run fashion house Versace says it has agreed to sell a 20-per cent stake to US private equity firm Blackstone in a deal that values the group at 1.0 billion euros ($A1.57 billion).